The Titanic Answers To Prayer
Part 3
God gives us free will, with which we make many choices. Our choices (and the choices made by others) are what place us where we are, and much of what can happen, good or bad, at any given time.
Unless there is gross negligence, or known sin involved in our chosen activities that would invite divine discipline, there is no cause for feeling guilty when the ongoing choices we make unwittingly set the stage for some unseen tragedy or disaster to take place.
Life is full of daily activities that could easily be the cause of becoming injured, sick, or dead. One could become sick, slip, trip, or fall at home, just as easily as one could be injured by engaging activities out in the world.
The rule of thumb is to use due care. The Biblical balance is found in Psalms 91: 11, 12 and Deut. 6: 16.
“For He will give His angels concerning you, To protect you in all your ways. On their hands they will lift you up, So that you do not strike your foot against a stone (Psalms 91: 11, 12 NASB2020).”
“Do not put the Lord your God to the test…(Deut. 6: 16 NIV).”
About 3 of my 30 years of my law-enforcement career was spent mounted on a motorcycle. Being a cop and riding motorcycles would be considered to be risky activities by most folks. I enjoyed both, but was wise enough to ask the Lord to ride along with me at the start of each patrol.
Many choices we make sow seeds that in time or in eternity will produce a crop of blessings or consequences (1).
With the exception of choosing to disbelieve in the unadulterated Gospel Message (2), there is unlimited forgiveness for the negative choices we make (3) , but this forgiveness does not necessarily relieve us from some the consequences that our negative choices generate. These consequences can not only impact the life of the one making those decisions, but the lives of others, as well.
One such choice (4) determines the locations of WHERE we will be spending eternity, beginning with one we find ourselves in the moment we depart from this world.
Choices made by born-again believers throughout the course of their post (after) salvation spiritual life that determines HOW (with or without the reward (5) and privileges (6) that are reserved for advancing disciples) they will experience Eternity.
Believers and unbelievers alike make daily choices that can greatly enhance or diminish the quality of their earthly experience, and the earthly experience of others who lives are impacted by the choices they make.
Yet, there are some key factors that set the stage for much of what our earthly experiences are going to be, over which we have limited or no choice at all.
For example, John 3: 6 identifies the separate but related roles that God and Man plays in the reproduction process of human beings.
“That (the body) which has been (reproduced and) born by the flesh (Man) is flesh, and that (soul) which is (created) and born (and born again) of the Spirit (God) is spirit (John 3: 6 NASB2020 parentheses mine.”
What separates and distinguishes human beings from all other flesh-reproducing creatures here on Earth is the divine imputation of a soul that has everlasting life. It is the intangible souls of Man that was and is created in God’s everlasting likeness.
Angelic and human beings have the capability, responsibility, and accountability for the moral choices they make, whereas other species conduct themselves according to instinct and training.
Our flesh (body) has an appointed expiration date, whereas our soul will live on throughout all of eternity.
Life after death is not a matter of IF, but a matter of WHERE and HOW it IS going to be experienced.
Our biological parents may or may not have had bringing a baby into this world in mind, at the moment when what would become our humanity at birth, was conceived.
It is God, Who creates the soul and places it (us) in the body of His choosing when the body comes forth at birth (7). He does so with full knowledge of all that His selection (of the specific body) will mean, bring, or limit, in the earthy experience of the individual.
God places each soul in a specific period of human history, again in keeping with the individual plan that He has in mind.
As children, we all play in imaginary past and future period of history, being cowboys and Indians one day, and astronauts the next. As spiritually mature believers, we come to acknowledge that our role in the master plan of God goes hand in hand with the period of history in which He chose to place us.
When our individual part is done, God recalls the soul (8).
The length of the life span that is experienced by any given individual is also determined by the individual plan and purpose that God had/has in mind for the individual involved.
For example, Adam’s lifespan was 930 years (9) whereas Jesus’ was approx. 33 years. The life spans of the children in Bethlehem, slaughtered in an attempt to eliminate the one who was reported to become king of the Jews, were less than two years old.
All of this was determined before any one of them came into this world.
No one came into existence before his or her appointed time and no one remains here on Earth any longer that what God has in mind.
The striking of the iceberg did not take God by surprise. Those who perished did not die before their time, and those who survived did not have their appointed time extended.
The day and timing of our birth, and the day and timing of our departure, are in the hands of God.
If God should choose to inform us, I believe that we would be amazed to find out many times our lives were preserved over the course of our time here on Earth, as a result of choices that we and others made. Choices, that at the time, seemed insignificant and inconsequential.
In my personal life, most would agree that I have had my share of trials, and tribulations, and more than one life-threatening situation. Some of it was the result of my own choices. Some of it was the result of choices made by other people. Some of it was the result of no human choices at all.
In infancy, I was hospitalized with a dangerously high fever that triggered a convulsion. Before reaching my mid 20’s, I had suffered the death of both maternal grandparents, both parents, a still-born son after my wife’s 9 month “uncomplicated” pregnancy, and developed an estranged relationship with minimal interaction with my adult siblings and the few blood relatives that remained.
In my darkest hours, I was, for all intent and purposes, on my own, with no safety net beneath me. But it was also then that I would experience the peace that surpasses all understanding.
I survived a thirty-year law enforcement career, dealt with all that 50+ years of marriage and raising a family can bring. I have experienced the spiritual combat along the road to spiritual maturity, and later the challenges preparing for and maintaining a productive ministry.
More than twenty years ago, I was diagnosed with Type2 diabetes with disabling complications, high blood pressure, stage three cancer, and given about a 35% chance of survival.
In retrospect, all of the adversity that God sent (10) and or allowed to take place was what prepared for, and sustains me, in the plan that God has in mind.
More recently, I have gone through heart catheterization for blockage, developed eye cadoretts, diminished hearing, and urological issues.
Some would say that I am fortunate to have completed the biblical three score and ten (70) year life span. A friend once joked with me, saying that I’ve had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.
The ONLY reason I (or anyone else) am still here, is that my appointed time has not yet come. God’s individual plan for me has not yet been completed. When it is, He will call me home. No sooner, no later.
Regardless of circumstances, the going home of a Church Age believer is a precious moment in the eyes of the Lord who receives him or her (11).
For an unsaved soul, his or her departure is the tragedy of all tragedies, with irreversible consequences (12) that no amount of prayer or after-death activity here on Earth can alter.
Sooner or later we will all be one of the 150,000 souls (or more - ) that depart this world each day. We may be in the company of many others, as in the case of those lost on the Titanic, or totally alone (humanly speaking).
By the choices we make , we can leave this world prepared; having been born again . Or, we can leave this world unprepared, destined for the Torments of Hades, and later be cast into the Lake of Fire, for all of Eternity.
For those who are born again, choices they make (to identify and to purse the post salvation spiritual life, or not) has got NOTHING to do ut EVERYTHING
(1) Gal. 6: 7 (2) John 3: 16, 18 (3) 1John 1: 9 (4) John 3: 16, 18 (5) 1Cor. 3: 14 (6) Rev. 2/Rev. 3 (7) Gen. 2: 7 (8) Eccl. 12: 7 (9) Gen. 5: 5 (10) Heb. 12: 6 (11) Psalms 116: 15 (12) Rev. 20: 13, 15